ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010122
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: NFL NOTES
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
By naming his NFL team the Ravens on Friday, Art Modell transformed it from one revered by dog-mask wearing fans in Cleveland to a franchise that draws on the literary bones of Edgar Allan Poe.
Barketh the Dawg Pound: Nevermore.
Modell announced his team's new name on a noontime dreary at Baltimore's Inner Harbor before a crowd of officials and several hundred fans huddled under umbrellas. It was 12 years to the day when the Colts deserted Baltimore in the middle of the night for Indianapolis.
``This is a new era and a new beginning for us and it will be for you,'' Modell said.
Ravens, after Poe's famous poem on the torment of lost love, beat out ``Americans'' and ``Marauders'' in a phone-in poll fans used to choose the team's name. About two-thirds of the approximately 33,000 calls received by The (Baltimore) Sun's poll phone line backed the Ravens.
``The more I hear `Baltimore Ravens,' the more it rolls off the tongue more easily,'' coach Ted Marchibroda said.
Not everyone was crowing about the selection of Ravens.
``I don't like it. I don't think it has any association with football,'' former Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas said, adding he preferred ``Mustangs.''
Modell said he was leaning toward team colors which would incorporate the black, red and yellow colors of the Maryland state flag.
Naming the NFL team after Poe's poem ``The Raven'' is the highest compliment that could be given to the 19th century writer of macabre tales, who lived periodically in Baltimore and died here in 1849, said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House & Museum in Baltimore.
``I'm sure he is in his grave right now giving a thumbs up,'' Jerome said.
Meanwhile, back in the franchise's former home, Cleveland, the remains of the Browns - paperwork and photos from the franchise's first 50 years - arrived at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on Friday for storage until the NFL returns to Cleveland.
A truck carried 60 boxes and five filing cabinets of material from the team's former offices in the Cleveland suburb of Berea to a storage area at the Hall of Fame's library. The city will receive a new or relocated franchise by 1999.
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